Mickey Finn

Horses for courses. If you have soul police CCTV showing everyone what's on the decks then there's less need for chat, but no harm if it's informative, entertaining or generally positive - enthuasiasm is usually infectious. As long as the music stays front and centre, there's no harm done. And while most of us might know most of the sounds, catching a stray punter is always a possibility and shouldn't be forgotten. And for those of us with Alzheimer's, it's good to be reminded sometimes.

My condolences to his family and friends. His sets were always among the most interesting and enjoyable of anyone's and he carried himself with style. Poorer for having lost him, richer for having had him. RIP.

As a regular at the Whitby July weekender since 2014, I'm very sorry to read this. He seemed to radiate calm and good humour and wore his obviously deep knowledge of the music very lightly. That guest appearance by Spyder Turner was hilarious as Spyder did various impersonations of other soul singers, including a very convincing Chuck Jackson. Many thanks and much respect for making our summers so much more enjoyable for so many years. RIP.

... and former Heatwave frontman Johnnie Wilder, Jr. with this from 1988:

Two artists who went from secular to sacred on the same Light Records label: Beau Williams and a great version of the Sam Cooke classic from 1991:

A true professional, whose job as a radio presenter he was able to use as a way of introducing people to the music that was his first love. Mr Blackburn is another, despite their very different styles. The Lennon interview was an amazing piece of luck. From memory, there was a write-in type of discussion show on Radio 1 on Sundays (Studio B15, presented by Adrian Love?) and someone wrote in asking "What's happened to John Lennon?" From that came the interview recordings and book. RIP.

What a terrific show that is, and at any time of year.

Thanks Peter, and the same from me to the moderators and all who contribute. Stay well, stay safe.

This appeared in a recent issue of Private Eye magazine (no. 1632, September):

Derek Mead has been championing this in recent years, and deservedly so - great version:

During the mid 70s majors like Columbia (Herbie Hancock) along with locals like EastWest released a lot of straight jazz in Japan, much of it recorded in the US. Japan seems to have had enough crude to avoid the rationing apparently happening elsewhere.

Thanks for posting this good news - very glad you are making progress and that you can feel it. Also that these amazing people continue to perform miracles every day despite the enormous pressures they face. All of us are going to need them at some time or other!

Years ago I heard an interview with jazz trumpeter Eddie Henderson who said that his run of albums on Capitol came to an end in 1979 due to the second oil crisis affecting vinyl production costs and forcing record companies to cut back on releases.

Expansion have been particularly vinyl-oriented in recent years. Copies of Bobby Hutton's album on vinyl can be found here: https://soulbrother.com/shop/a-piece-of-the-action-pre-order-due-6-sept/ or here https://www.firstexperiencerecords.com/product/bobby-hutton-piece-of-the-action-lp-vinyl-pre-order-in-stock-6-9-24/ For the singles check out https://www.firstexperiencerecords.com/product/bobby-hutton-loving-you-needing-you-loving-you-wanting-you-watch-where-youre-going-7-vinyl-pre-order-in-stock-6-9-24/ https://www.firstexperiencerecords.com/product/booby-hutton-lend-a-hand-come-see-whats-left-of-me-7-vinyl-pre-order-in-stock-6-9-24/ https://soulbrother.com/shop/lend-a-hand-come-see-whats-left-of-me-pre-order-due-august/ https://soulbrother.com/shop/loving-you-needing-you-loving-you-wanting-you-watch-where-youre-going-pre-order-due-august/ All in stock at the time of posting.

It's very encouraging to see this finally reissued. For some years any hope of ABC albums being reissued was lost due to a fire that consumed the master tapes. I don't know what source was used for this reissue but there are people who can perform miracles by patiently removing hiss and crackles from whatever decent enough source is available. The ABC catalogue has quite a few strong candidates for reissue, including Chuck Jackson "Through all times" and Charles Mann "Say you love me too"